1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic electronic component and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As representative electronic components using a ceramic material there are provided a capacitor, an inductor, a piezoelectric element, a varistor, a thermistor and the like.
Among these ceramic electronic components, multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) have a small size, secure high capacitance, and are easily mountable.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors are chip type condensers that are mounted on circuit boards of various electronic products, such as image display devices, for example, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), and the like, computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, and the like, to store and discharge electrical charges.
Heat generated in electronic devices is a growing problem, since image display devices have recently become bigger and the speed of computer central processing units (CPUs) has increased.
Therefore, multilayer ceramic capacitors are required to secure stable capacitance and reliability, even at high temperatures, for the stable operation of integrated circuits (ICs) installed in electronic devices.
The multilayer ceramic capacitor has various sizes and lamination types depending on the intended usage and capacitance thereof.
In particular, in order to meet recent requirements for electronic product such as miniaturization, lightening, and the multi-functionalization thereof, the multilayer ceramic capacitor used in the electronic products is also required to have an ultra-small size and ultra-high capacitance and to boost voltages.
For this reason, multilayer ceramic capacitors, in which dielectric layers and internal electrode layers are thin to allow for ultra-small sized products, and a large number of dielectric layers are laminated for the ultra-high capacitance thereof, have been manufactured.
In multilayer ceramic capacitors, external electrodes are formed by coating a conductive material on both end surfaces of the ceramic laminate.
Here, the external electrodes are thinner over corner portions of the laminate than in central portions thereof.
Therefore, conductive foreign substances such as plating liquid or moisture may infiltrate through the corner portions, which may cause deterioration of insulation resistance and degradation of reliability.
In particular, these phenomena are further aggravated in an ultra-high capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitor of which a cover is thin and a margin is narrow. The reason for this is that the areas of the internal electrodes overlapping each other are required to be significantly increased in order to increase product capacitance.
Patent Document 1 fails to disclose a sealing part enclosing both end portions of a laminate.